and if it had not been so, He would have told us. That little clause
is inimitably beautiful; it seems to teach that where He permits His
children to cherish some natural presentiment of the blessed
future--its solemn troops and sweet societies; its friendships,
recognitions, and fellowships; its holy service, and special
opportunities--that He really assents to our deepest and most cherished
thoughts. If it had not been so, He would have told us.
_The charm of Heaven will be the Lord's presence._--"Where I am, ye
shall be also." We shall see His face, and be forever with Him. What
would not men give, if some old manuscripts might turn up with new
stories of His wondrous life, new parables as charming as those of the
Good Shepherd and the Prodigal Son; new beatitudes; new discourses like
that on the Vine. God might have permitted this. But what would it be
in comparison with all that lies before! The past has lost much; but
the future holds infinitely more. We shall see new Gospels enacted
before our eyes, behold Christ as a real visible person in the glory of
Divine manhood, hear Him speak to us as His friends, and shall know
what He meant when He promised to gird Himself, and come forth to serve
His servants.
If you are in doubt as to what Heaven is like, is it not enough to know
that it will be in accord with the nature and presence and choice of
Jesus Christ?
After His resurrection, He spent forty days among His disciples, that
men might see what the risen life was like. As He was, and is, so
shall we be. His body is the pattern in accordance to which this shall
be fashioned. What He was to His friends after His resurrection, we
shall be to ours, and they to us. We shall hear the familiar voices
and the dear old names, shall resume the dear relationships which death
severed, and shall speak again of the holy secrets of our hearts with
those who were our twin-spirits.
And He will come again, either in our death hour or in His Second
Advent, "to receive us" to Himself. If we only could believe this, and
trust Him who says it, our hearts could not be troubled, though death
itself menaced us; for we should realize, that to be received at the
moment of dissolution by the hands of Jesus, into the place on which He
has lavished time and thought and love, must be "far better" than the
best that earth could offer.
V
The Reality of which Jacob's Dream was the Shadow
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man
cometh unto the Father, but by Me."--JOHN xiv. 6.
We all know more truth than we give ourselves credit for. A moment
before the Lord had said, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."
Thomas, the pessimist--always inclined to look at the dark side of
things--directly contradicted Him, saying, "Master, we are absolutely
ignorant of the goal to which Thy steps are bending; it is impossible,
therefore, for us to know the path that lies through the gloom, and by
which Thou art to come to it." It was a strange collision, the
Master's "Ye know," and Thomas's "We know not." Which was right?
There is no doubt that Jesus was right, and they did know. In many a
discourse He had given sufficient materials for them to construct a
true conception of the Father's house, and the way to it. These
materials were lying in some dusty corner of their memory, unused, and
Christ knew this. He said, therefore, in effect, "Go back to the
teachings I have given you; look carefully through the inventory of
your knowledge; let your instincts, illumined by My words, supply the
information you need: there are torches in your souls already lighted,
that will cast a radiant glow upon the mysteries to the brink of which
you have come."
This is true of us all. Christ never conducts to experiences for which
He has not previously prepared us. As the great ocean-steamers take in
their stores of coal and provision, day and night, for weeks previous
to their sailing; so, by insensible influences, Christ is ever
anticipating the strain and stress of coming circumstance, passing in
words which are spirit and life, though they may stand in their heavy
packing-cases in the hold, until we are driven to unpack, examine, and
use their contents. Not unseldom sorrow is sent for no other purpose
than to compel us to take cognizance of our possessions. Many a fabric
of manufacture, many an article of diet, many an ingenious process has
been suggested in days of scarcity and famine. So, old words and
truths come back in our sore need. Christ often speaks to us, as a
teacher to a nervous child, saying, "You know quite well, if you would
only think a little." More truth is stored in memory than recollection
can readily lay hands upon.
Thomas persisted in his protestations of ignorance, and so the Lord
uttered for his further information the royal sentence, which sums up
Christianity in the one simple pronoun "I." It was as if He said to
His disciples gathered there, and to His Church in all ages, "To have
Me, to know Me, to love and obey Me, this is religion; this is the
light for every dark hour, the solution for all the mysteries."
Christianity is more than a creed, a doctrinal system, a code of
rules--it is Christ.
I. CHRIST, AS THE WAY.--"I am the Way," said our Lord. The conception
of life as a pilgrimage is as old as human speech. On the third page
of our Bibles we are told that "Enoch walked with God." The path of
the Israelites through the desert was a pilgrim's progress, and the
enduring metaphor for our passage from the cross to the
Sabbath-keeping. Isaiah anticipated the rearing up of a highway which
should be called the way of holiness, which should not be trodden by
the unclean; no lion should be there, or ravenous beast go up thereon;
but the ransomed of the Lord should walk there, and go with singing to
Zion. But in the furthest flights of inspired imagination, the prophet
never dreamed that God Himself would stoop to become the trodden path
to Himself, and that the way of holiness was no other than that Divine
Servant who so often stood before Him for portrayal. "_I_ am the way,"
said Christ.
He fulfills all the conditions of Isaiah's prediction.
He saw a highway. A highway is for all: for kings and commoners; for
the nobleman daintily picking his way, and the beggar painfully
plodding with bare feet. And Jesus is for every man. "Whosoever will,
let him come"; let him step out and walk; let him commit himself to Him
who comes to our doors that He may conduct us to the pearly gate.
It was a way of holiness, where no unclean or leprous person was
permitted to travel. Neither can we avail ourselves of the gracious
help of Christ, so long as we are harboring what He disapproves, or
doing what He forbids.
It was so plain and straight, that wayfaring men though fools could not
mistake it. And the Master said, that whilst the wise and prudent
might miss His salvation, babes would find it. "Hidden from the wise
and prudent, but revealed to babes."
It afforded perfect immunity from harm. The wild beasts of the forest
might roar around it, but they were kept off that thoroughfare by an
invisible and impassable fence. Who is he that can harm us whilst we
follow that which is good? The special Divine permission was
necessary, before Satan could tempt Job, whose heart was perfect with
his God.
It was trodden with song. And who can describe the waves of joy that
sometimes roll in on the believing, loving soul. There is always
peace, but sometimes there is joy unspeakable and full of glory. The
hands of Jesus shed the oil of gladness on our heads, whilst the
lamentation and regret that haunt the lives of others are abashed, as
the spectres of the night before the roseate touch of morn.
What further thought did Christ mean to convey, when He said, "I am the
Way"? We cannot see the other side of the moon. The full import of
these words, as they touch His wonderful nature, as it lies between Him
and His Father, is beyond us; but we may at least study the face they
turn toward our lives.
The true value of a way is never realized until we are following it
through an unknown country, or groping along it in almost absolute
darkness. I remember, during a tour in Switzerland, on starting for a
long day's march, the comfort of the assurance that I had only to keep
to one road which was clearly defined, and it would inevitably bring me
to my destination. How different this to another experience of making
my way, as I might, across the hillsides in the direction which I
fancied was the right one! All that had to be done in the first
instance was to follow the roadway, to obey its sinuous windings, to
climb the hills where it climbed, to descend the valleys where it
descended, to cross the rivers and torrents at the precise point with
it. It seemed responsible for me as long as I kept to it. Whenever I
thought to better myself by wandering right or left, I found myself
landed in some difficulty, and when I returned to it, it seemed to say,
"Why did you leave me? I know that sometimes I am rough and difficult;
but I can do better for you, than you can for yourself, and indeed I am
the only possible way. Obey me, and I will bring you home." It is so
that Christ speaks to us.
Each day, as we leave our home, we know that the prepared path lies
before us, in the good works which God has prepared for us to walk in.
And when we are ignorant of their direction, and are at a loss as to
where to place our steps, we have only to concern ourselves with
Christ, and almost unconsciously we shall find ourselves making
progress on the destined way. Christ is the Way: love Christ, trust
Christ, obey Christ, be concerned with Christ, and all else will be
added. Christ is the Way. When the heart is wrapped up in Him, it is
on the way, and it is making progress, although it never counts the
rate or distance, so occupied is it with Him.
"I fear I make no progress," sighs the timid soul.
"But what is Christ to thee?"
"Everything."
"Then if He be all in all to thee, thou art most certainly on God's
way; and thou art making progress toward thy home, albeit that it is
unconsciously. Be of good cheer, Christ is the Way; remember the
ancient pilgrims, of whom it is written, that the way was in their
hearts."
"But God the Father is so little to me!"
"But to deal with Christ is to deal with God: to be wrapped up in the
love of Christ is to make ever deeper discoveries into the heart of
God. He is the Way to God: to know Him is to come to the Father."
II. CHRIST AS THE TRUTH.--The thought grows deeper as we advance.
Obedience to the Way conducts to the vision of the Truth; ethics to
spiritual optics. The truth-seeker must first submit himself in all
humility and obedience to Christ; and when he is willing to do His
will, he is permitted to know.
(1) Christ is more than a teacher. "We know that Thou art a Teacher,
come from God," said Nicodemus. He is more, He is the Truth of God.
All truth is ensphered in Him. All the mysteries of wisdom and
knowledge are hidden in Him. We fully know truth only as it is in
Jesus. When the Spirit of Truth would lead us into all truth, He can
do nothing better than take of the things of Christ, and reveal them to
us, because to know Christ is to know the Truth in its most complete,
most convenient, and most accessible form. If you know nothing else,
and know Christ intimately and fully, you will know the Truth, and the
Truth will make you free. If you love truth, and are a child of the
truth, you will be inevitably attracted to Christ, and recognize the
truth that speaks through His glorious nature. "He that is of the
truth heareth My voice."
(2) Distinguish between Christ the Truth, and truth about Him. Many
true things may be said about Him; but we are not saved by truths about
Him, but by Himself the Truth.
Not the indubitable fact that Jesus died; but the Person of Him who
died and lives forevermore.
Not the certain fact that Jesus lay in the grave; but the blessed Man
Himself, who lay there for me.
Not the incontestable facts of His resurrection and ascension; but that
He has borne my nature to the midst of the throne, and has achieved a
victory which helps me in my daily struggle.
This is the ground basis of all true saving faith. The soul may accept
truths about Christ, as it would any well-authenticated historical
fact; but it is not materially benefited or saved until it has come to
rest on the bosom of Him of whom these facts are recorded.
(3) To know Christ as Truth demands truth in heart and life. The
insincere man; the trifler; the flippant jester who takes nothing
seriously; the superficial man who uses the deepest expressions, as
counters for society talk; the inconsistent man who is daily doing
violence to his convictions, by permitting things which his conscience
condemns--must stand forever on the outskirts of the Temple of Truth:
they have no right to stand before the King of Truth. If you have
never discerned the truth as it is in Jesus, it becomes a serious
question whether you are perfectly true, or whether you are not, like
Pilate, harboring insincerity in your heart, which blinds your eyes to
His ineffable attributes.
(4) Concern yourself with Christ. Be content to let the world and its
wisdom alone. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God . . .
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." Give yourself to know
Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, as well as sanctification and
redemption. To know Him is to be at the fountain-head of all truth;
and the soul which has dwelt with Him by day and night will find
itself, not only inspired by an undying love for the true, but will be
able to hold fellowship with truth-lovers and truth-seekers everywhere;
nay, will be able even to instruct those who have the reputation of
great learning and knowledge in the schools of human thought. "I have
more understanding than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my
meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept Thy
precepts." To know and to possess Christ, is to have the Word, that is
the Wisdom of God, enshrined as a most sacred possession in the heart.
III. CHRIST AS THE LIFE.--It is not enough to know; we need life. Life
is, indeed, the gate to knowledge. "This is life eternal _that_ they
should know Thee." It was imperative, therefore, that Jesus should
become a source of life to men, that they might know the Truth, and be
able to walk in the Way, and more especially since death had infected
and exhausted all the springs of the world's vitality.
It was into a world of death that the Son of God came. The spring of
life in our first parents had become tainted at its source. At the
best Adam was only a living soul. Dead--dead--dead in trespasses and
sins; such was the Divine verdict, such the course of this world.
Earth resembled the valley in the prophet's vision, full of bones, very
many and very dry. All the reservoirs of life were spent; its
fountains had died away in wastes of sand.
Then the Son of God brought life from the eternal throne, from God
Himself; and became a Life-giving Spirit. His words were spirit and
life: He was Himself the Resurrection and the Life: those that believed
in Him became partakers of the Divine Nature. The tree of life was
again planted on the earth's soil, when Jesus became incarnate. "I
give eternal life unto My sheep," He said, "and they shall never
perish." "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life."
If, then, you are wanting life, and life more abundantly, you must have
Christ. Do not seek _it_, but _Him_: not the stream but the fountain;
not the word, but the speaker; not the fruit, but the tree. He is the
Life and Light of men.
And if you have Christ you have life. You may not be competent to
define or analyze it; you may not be able to specify the place or time,
when it first broke into your soul; you may hardly be able to
distinguish it from the workings of your own life: but if you have
Christ, trust Christ, desire Christ above all, you have the Life. "He
that hath the Son hath the Life; he that hath not the Son of God hath
not the Life." "We know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is
true . . . this is eternal life." "I," said Jesus, "am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life."
VI
Christ Revealing the Father
"Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."--JOHN
xiv. 8, 9.
The longing of the universal heart of man was voiced by Philip, when he
broke in, rather abruptly, on our Lord's discourse with the challenge
that He should answer all questions, dissipate all doubt, by showing
them the Father. Is there a God? how can I be sure that He is? what
does He feel toward us?--these are questions which men persistently
ask, and wait for the reply. And the Master gave the only satisfactory
answer that has ever been uttered in the hearing of mankind, when He
said in effect, "The knowledge of God must be conveyed, not in words or
books, in symbols or types, but in a life. To know Me, to believe in
Me, to come into contact with Me, is to know the deepest heart of God.
'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show
us the Father?'"
I. PHILIP'S INQUIRY.--_It bore witness to the possible growth of the
human soul_. Only three short years before, as we are told in the
first chapter of this Gospel, Christ had found him. At that time he
was probably much as the young men of his age and standing. Not
specially remarkable save for an interest in, and an earnestness about,
the advent of the Messiah; his views, however, of his person and work
were limited and narrow: he looked for his advent as the time for the
reëstablishment of the kingdom of David, and deliverance from the Roman
yoke. But three years of fellowship with Jesus had made a wonderful
difference in this young disciple. The deepest mysteries of life and
death and heaven seemed within his reach. He is not now content with
beholding the Messiah, he is eager to know the Father, and to stand
within the inner circle of His presence-chamber.
The highest watermark ever touched by the great soul of Moses was when
he said, amid the sublimities of Sinai, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy
glory." But in this aspiration Philip stands beside him. There is a
close kinship between the mighty lawgiver and the fishermen of
Bethsaida. How little there is to choose between, "Show me Thy glory,"
and "Show us the Father." Great and marvellous is the capacity of the
soul for growth!
_It truly interpreted the need of man._--"It sufficeth us." From
nature, with all her voices that speak of God's power and Godhead; from
the page of history, indented with the print of God's footprints; from
type and ceremony and temple, though instituted by God Himself; even
from the unrivalled beauty of our Saviour's earthly life--these men
turned unsatisfied, unfilled, and said, "We are not yet content, but if
Thou wouldest show us the Father, we should be."
And would it not suffice _us_?--Would it not be sufficient to give new
zest and reality to _prayer_, if we could realize that it might be as
familiar as the talk of home, or like the petitioning of a little
child? Would it not suffice to make the most irksome _work_ pleasant,
if we could look up and discern the Father's good pleasure and smile of
approval? Would it not suffice to rob _pain_ of its sting, if we could
detect the Father's hands adjusting the heat of the furnace? Would it
not suffice to shed a light across the dark mystery of _death_, if we
felt that the Father was waiting to lead us through the shadows to
Himself? How often the cry rises from sad and almost despairing
hearts, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."
_But surely this request was based on a mistake._--Philip wanted a
visible theophany, like that which Moses beheld, when the majestic
procession swept down the mountain pass; or as the elders saw, when
they beheld the paved sapphire work; or after the fashion of the
visions vouchsafed to Elijah, Isaiah, or Ezekiel. He wanted to see the
Father. But how can you make wisdom, or love, or purity visible, save
in a human life?
Yet this is the mistake we are all liable to make. We feel that there
must be an experience, a vision, a burst of light, a sensible
manifestation, before we can know the Father. We strain after some
unique and extraordinary presentation of the Deity, especially in the
aspect of Fatherhood, before we can be completely satisfied, and thus
we miss the lesson of the present hour. Philip was so absorbed in his
quest for the transcendent and sublime, that he missed the revelations
of the Father which for three years had been passing under his eyes.
God had been manifesting His tenderest and most characteristic
attributes by the beauty of the Master's life, but Philip had failed to
discern them; till now the Master bids him go back on the photographs
of those years, as fixed in his memory, to see in a thousand tiny
illustrations how truly the Father dwelt in Him, and lived through His
every word and work.
Are you straining after the vision of God, startled by every footstep,
intently listening till the very atmosphere shall become audible,
expecting an overwhelming spectacle? In all likelihood you will miss
all. The kingdom comes not with outward show. When men expected
Christ to come by the front door, He stole in at the back. Whilst
Philip was waiting for the Father to be shown in thunder and lightning,
in startling splendor, in the stately majesty that might become the
Highest, he missed the daily unfolding of the Divine Nature that was
being afforded in the Life with which he dwelt in daily contact.
_Philip's request emphasized the urgent need of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit._--"If ye had known Me". . . the Saviour said. "Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" They
failed to know the Father, because they failed to know Christ, and they
failed in this because they knew Him only after the flesh. They were
so familiar with Him as their Friend, His love was so natural, tender,
and human, He had become so closely identified with all their daily
existence, that they did not recognize the fire that shone behind the
porcelain, the Deity that tabernacled beneath the frail curtains.
Often those who dwell amid the loveliest or grandest scenery miss the
beauty which is unveiled to strangers from a distance. Certain lives
have to be withdrawn from us before we understand how fair they were,
and how much to us. And Jesus had to leave His disciples before they
could properly appreciate Him. The Holy Spirit must needs take of the
things of Christ, and reveal them, before they could realize their true
significance, symmetry, and beauty.
Two things are needful, then: first, we must know Christ through the
teaching of the Holy Ghost; and next, we must receive Him into our
hearts, that we may know Him, as we know the workings of our own
hearts. Each knows himself, and could recognize the mint-mark of his
own individuality; so when Christ has become resident within us, and
has taken the place of our self-life, we know Him as we know ourselves.
"What man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in
him?--but we have the mind of Christ?"
II. THE LORD'S REPLY.--"He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father."
He did not rebuke the request, as unfit to proffer, or impossible to
satisfy. He took it for granted that such a desire would exist in the
heart, and that His disciples would always want to be led by Him into
the Father's presence. In this His ministry resembled that of the
great forerunner, who led His disciples into the presence of the
Bridegroom, content to decrease if only He might increase. The
Master's answer was, however, widely different from John's. The
forerunner pointed to Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold the Lamb of
God"; Jesus pointed to Himself, and said, "I and My Father are One; to
have seen Me is to have seen the Father; to have Me is to possess the
Father."
It troubled the Lord greatly that He had been so long time with them,
and yet they had not known Him; that they had not realized the source
of His words and works; that they had concentrated their thought on
Him, instead of passing, as He meant them to do, from the stream to the
source, from the die to the seal, from the beam of the Divine Glory to
its Sun. He bade them, therefore, from that moment realize that they
knew and had seen the Father in knowing and seeing Himself. Not more
surely had the Shechinah dwelt in the tabernacle of old, than did it
indwell His nature, though too thickly shrouded to be seen by ordinary
and casual eyes.